Page 6 of Witch You Weren't Here

Mr Ashworth and Harry had also arrived back in the garden, albeit talking to a crowd as far away as physically possible.

Tallulah looked over at them and grimaced. ‘Look, kids, I know it’s fun and natural to sneak off, but you do have to be careful. And respectful. Do you think you can exercise some of that common sense I know you both have next time?’

They nodded their heads sheepishly.

‘Good. Now, for appearance’s sake, we should probably leave. Mr Ashworth is … not pleased.’

Kay risked another glance in Harry’s direction, chewing on her nail. Should she tell her mum about Mr Ashworth using his influence on Harry? Or was she making too big of a deal of it?

‘I’m sure he’ll get over it, darling,’ her mum said, standing up to give her a brief hug. ‘You know the mood I’m picking up on could be affected by any number of events that have happened this evening, not just you teenagers. The Ashworths have a lot of responsibility. With that kind of pressure, people’s emotions can become extreme. I’ll go find your dad and talk to him about leaving.’

They watched from the patio as their mum found their dad, Marvin, in a big, lively group by the water feature. Tallulah pulled him away to have a brief conversation and then started making her way back on her own. Kay and Joe exchanged a long look.

‘He said to go ahead without him, he’s been talking to a possible sponsor for the football team,’ Tallulah announced as she rejoined them and picked up her handbag. ‘Come on then, we’ll do an Irish goodbye – your dad can do the thanking later.’

Kay wasn’t exactly surprised. As an influential motivator, their dad loved social events, where he could engage people in conversations about what they were doing, in work or their personal life, and give them a boost towards meeting their goals – and sometimes his. He lived for this kind of thing. In contrast, being with large crowds was a strain on their mum as she was assailed by everyone’s moods. Sometimes, she took a magic inhibitor, which a healer and alchemist had made up for her, but they were expensive, so she’d gone without one that evening, given that the party was usually flowing with good vibes. Kay could see the strain of it had worn her out by the time they’d walked back through the village to their cottage, and they all headed straight for their bedrooms.

Kay did her best to sleep with butterflies swarming around her tummy as she relived the moment Harry had touched her face and leaned towards her. Exam season was about to start, she knew he probably wouldn’t come over to their house quite as much until he’d finished his A levels, and she had her own GCSEs to concentrate on, but once all that was done with … There would be the solstice celebration, of course, but … maybe she could even ask him out on a date?

When Kay opened her eyes the following morning, everything looked different. Harry had been right in his suspicions. The fluttering in her stomach hadn’t solely been about her crush. Her gift had finally emerged.

And her world was about to fall apart.

Chapter One

4 p.m.: friday 29 october

Prague Congress Centre

820 miles and 47(+1) hours until the wedding

Mum: Aunty L says her teeth are aching like she’s eaten nothing but hard toffee for a week. You need to leave Prague as soon as possible.

Kay swore quietly as she read the message from her mother and tucked her mobile away before the glow disturbed the people sitting around her in the conference auditorium. Her boss, Mark, was only three rows behind her and had a pathological hatred of his staff getting distracted by their phones – even though their whole business was designing apps for people to download onto said phones.

She squinted up at the large presentation screen, but all her brain could compute was that the speaker had spent far too long fiddling with the transitions for the text animations and set the time at least a second too long for each. Some floated onto the screen, some span across, others faded in. It was, in fact, a pretty accurate visual representation of the thoughts her subconscious was now trying to push up to the surface.

A little jolt of electricity made Kay jump. Ilina, a fellow project manager from the German IT company Kay’s UK employer was partnered with, was sitting next to her and had leaned in close enough to bump their shoulders. Ilina had always been one of the few people at work Kay looked forward to talking to, but they’d clicked as soon as they met in person at the conference. It was like they’d known each other eighteen years, rather than eighteen months. Realising they were both witches may have escalated the friendship between them, too.

‘Hey,’ Kay whispered, rubbing her shoulder theatrically. It hadn’t really hurt, but there had been a leap in her chest, both of her own magic and of the anxiety that she was going to react without meaning to. She had no idea what her haywire magic was going to produce at the moment. It seemed capable of spells she’d not so much as learned, let alone tried to implement, and this conference had been one big stress-fest, with her terrified she was going to accidentally animate a cardboard cut-out on a stand, or start sneezing pink sparks.

‘Sorry. Static. These seat covers must be nylon.’ Ilina looked at her, all innocence, and Kay rolled her eyes, unable to suppress a smile.

‘Yeah, sure.’

‘Promise you won’t report me for breaking WWT-One?’ Ilina batted her eyelashes.

‘As if I would even know where the Council stands on that kind of infraction at the moment. They probably changed their minds three times already today.’ The first Worldwide Witching Tenet, ‘Never use magic to do harm,’ was always up for debate and led to constant making and breaking of smaller laws lobbied by the individual council in each country. And Kay had long since ceased paying close attention to current witch affairs, it made little difference to her life and the bureaucracy of it all frustrated her because it never seemed to be centred around putting the majority of witches or non-magical people first.

Ilina gave the little cackle that always made Kay want to join in too.

‘What was that for anyway?’ Kay asked, her voice hushed even lower.

‘You are squirming since you got your text message. Has something happened?’

‘Not precisely. That storm is closer than the weather forecasters think.’

‘You know someone with an affinity for the weather?’ Ilina whispered back. ‘How accurate?’

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